Anti-coal protester risks life and limb

A MAN could have been killed when he locked himself to coal-loading infrastructure at Abbot Point coal terminal in the most dangerous protests to date, Adani Australia has said.

Four people stopped work early yesterday after two locked themselves to a conveyor belt at the site, near Bowen.

Abbot Point Operations chief executive Dwayne Freeman slammed the protest activity, describing it as “the most dangerous” seen at Abbot Point to date.

“One of the protesters could have been killed or seriously injured when he crawled underneath a live operating conveyor belt, which only had a gap from the floor to the belt of about 2.5 feet (75cm),” Mr Freeman said.

“He and another person trespassed onto the property and locked on to conveyor belts using dragon sleeve devices for a short period before being removed by the police.

“Two other protesters with dragon sleeve lock-on devices in their possession were detained by Queensland Police Service at the terminal perimeter, after cutting through a security fence.”

The protesters were arrested by police and operations are continuing as normal.

Two men, 25 and 53, have since been charged with trespass and intentionally or recklessly interfering with port operations. A woman, 33, and man, 28, have been charged with the same, as well as contravening a direction.

Mr Freeman said due to the serious nature of the action, the matter had been referred to the workplace health and safety regulator.

“These individuals have no knowledge of a heavy industrial site like ours and this sort of protest activity brings a high risk someone will be seriously injured or killed,” he said.

“We respect the rights of people to conduct peaceful protests, however these activities are illegal, unsafe and far from peaceful.”